Quick Look: Wild Earth – African Safari Live Video App for iPad

Wild Earth is a new iPad app that offers up live video from wildlife cameras in several good locations in South Africa. If you like seeing wild animals in natural habitats rather than in typical zoos, or have kids who are fascinated by animals, this app may have some appeal.

I have an 8 year old daughter who is near-obsessed with animals; she can’t read, talk, or learn enough about them. From kittens and puppies to insects, to snakes, to sea creatures, she’s always interested. I’m not far behind her in interest level, so this is another app we took a look at together this week.

Notes

Wild Earth is said to feature live wildlife cameras from all around the world, but so far in our usage of the app it just shows four cameras in South Africa.

The four current camera sites are the Djuma Waterhole in the Djuma Game Reserve, live safaris at the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, Shark Park on the East coast of South Africa, and Penguin Point, an African Penguin exhibit with a colony of ten penguins.

The app’s UI is very basic. It opens to a view of four postcards representing the four camera locations; each offering both 2D and 3D cameras. A single tap on either the 2D or 3D camera banner on each card takes you to that view.

Once you go to the screen for any of the cameras, you just hit the Play button to begin watching. You can toggle full screen view on and off with a single tap, and the app also supports AirPlay video, so you can enjoy the video up on a big HD screen as well.

Sometimes the video footage will have audio as well, sometimes not. The live safari cams at the game reserve have excellent narration by safari guides very often. The waterhole and Penguin Point cameras have never had any audio while we’ve been using the app.

Wild Earth is a $3.99 app; buying it gets you 30 days of using it as much as you like. After that, you need to sign up for an auto-renewing subscription which costs $3.99 per month for unlimited access.

Highlights

— The video in the app is very good quality; and AirPlay video support means you can enjoy some superb footage on your HDTV as well.

— There’s lots to see and what you see changes all the time – especially at the live safari and the waterhole camera spots. In just a handful of days of on and off use we’ve seen a Giraffe drinking at the waterhole, close-ups of elephants eating with zebras just nearby, a leopard chilling in the shade, a rhino bathing and then walking around and marking out its territory, and more.

— The safari guides at the live safari camera location are excellent. The one woman we’ve seen a lot of there is clearly hugely knowledgeable and passionate about the animals she works with.

Lowlights

It would be good to see more camera locations available in the app, and from a greater variety of places, rather than only South Africa.

This app is priced a little steeply. I’d rather see it offer either the app itself for free with a longer free access period or a slightly larger purchase price that then provides unlimited access without the need for a monthly subscription.

Overall

Wild Earth is a nice app if you’re at all interested in wild animals. It’s basic and simple to use and offers some great live video footage of many beautiful wild African animals. It could do with having more camera locations and nicer pricing. As much as we’ve enjoyed using it, I can’t see paying $50 a year to subscribe.